What's your Theological Worldview?

Jonathan had this quiz posted on his blog. It's pretty interesting and makes you think about some of these issues if you haven't already.

What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Emergent/Postmodern You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don't think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this. Emergent/Postmodern 86% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 64% Charismatic/Pentecostal 54% Classical Liberal 54% Reformed Evangelical 46% Neo orthodox 46% Roman Catholic 32% Modern Liberal 29% Fundamentalist 29%

Apricots

Apricot Puree

I found fresh apricots on sale at Sprouts for $1.00 per pound. Apricots are a great Stage 1 food for babies, so I picked up about a pound and a half. I washed them, halved and pitted them and placed them upside down in a baking dish with about an inch of water.

They roasted in a 350 degree oven for about 25 minutes. After they cooled, they went into the food processor with a little of the leftover water from the pan. Then the contents were poured into ice cube trays. 13 apricots made about 30+ cubes. Rémy ate 2 cubes for breakfast...so this is about 15 meals...at a cost of $1.73 total. About .11 per meal. Not only is it nutrient dense and fresh, but also money saving. Although, if you're not kitchen savvy or have a dislike for cooking in general, this method is not for you. I just happen to have an unnatural love for any kind of kitchen tool and rise to the challenge of dirtying every dish in the kitchen.

Conquering the Laundry

Laundry Room

We need a plan of action. Desperately. We are soon to be overrun by laundry. Who knew that two adults, one girl and one doggie could generate soooo much laundry.

Laundry Room

First, I'll confess I'm not a wonderful domestic goddess. I can cook, but that's about it as far as domestication. I've never liked to clean, my mom can chronicle it for you as far back as 1981. Whenever cleaning was to be done, I would suddenly need to go to the bathroom, or had an onset of the 'not feeling well's. On the rare occasion I would actually do housework I would get overwhelmed by the overall scheme of things and just focus on one project. Sure, the whole house is a train wreck, but I'll just focus on pairing my shoes.

Sofa #1

Walker, on the other hand is a sailor when it comes to keeping his things tidy and orderly and ship-shape. We agreed very early on in our marriage that I would do the laundry and he would do the dishes. He always seemed to be caught up on the dishes, with spare time...while I seemed to have an unending chore of laundry. So we switched, he did the laundry, I did the dishes. (I must not have thought it was fair that he got the shorter task). The laundry caught up in a matter of a couple of days, which I attributed to us wearing the same underwear every day that week. Meanwhile, the dishes stacked up and up and up, probably because we didn't eat out so much that week, right? So we switched back. And that's where we've been ever since. There has been ONE time I've been caught up on laundry. It was in January of this year. And while I'd like to take all the credit and say it was because I slaved away washing and drying and folding clothes, it's really because of my mother and mother-in-law who came over to help after Rémy was born.

Sofa #2

About once a week, Walker sheepishly says, "Do you want some help with the laundry?" He knows I'll say no to this, because I'm stubborn and don't need any help...but it's also his friendly reminder to keep me on task.

Bedroom Chair #1

I made a plan yesterday telling myself that all I have to do is get caught up, and then maintain. Seems so easy, right? We'll see.

I got embarassed about the amount of pictures I took of piles of laundry around the house....so there's another chair, bathroom floor, and in front of dresser, along with piles of clean clothes that Rémy has outgrown. As a side note, almost all of these piles are clean clothes. They just never seems to migrate onto hangers and into closets.

I found an article called Stay on Top of Your Laundry after googling the subject.

In Red Chair Series- 5 Months

Accomplishments this month: can sit up for a few moments on her own, has learned to eat different foods including rice cereal, oat cereal, green beans, mashed bananas, avocado, apple sauce. Now has 2 teeth, with a mouthful on the way it seems. (I'm going to miss that gummy smile).

New Foods progress

Here is a series of photos from different occasions in the past week and a half... it's funny to see that she has the same expression each time. Above she is trying green beans for the second time.

Here she is trying mashed bananas.

And here she is feeding herself (sort of) bits of avocado.

These were all taken about 3 days apart, yet with each one she has that surprised look, arched eyebrows, wrinkled forehead, big eyes and overall wonderment at what this new food is. Last Monday 2 molars made their appearance. Usually toddlers get these between a year and a half and 2 years. She has no other teeth, just these 2 molars. Since these are the teeth used to help chew, I decided it would be ok to let her chew on some soft foods, like avocado.

First Mother's Day

What a memorable day to dedicate Rémy to God. I'll always remember this special day, the laughter, tears and shared words of wisdom. Many of our family and friends joined us on this day and many happy pictures and precious moments were captured.



I had been planning and organizing this for weeks, anticipating this moment in our lives. I was unprepared for my response. As Walker and Rémy and I are standing in line with the other parents' waiting to dedicate their children the responsibility of motherhood and being a parent hit me all of a sudden. I am a MAMA to a child. Whoa. And while it would be easy for me to sit passively by her side, just to feed her and change her diaper and do nothing more, we've got to take the more active approach, even if it is more difficult. Leading, guiding, preparing, promoting, encouraging. With each of these things comes added responsibility. Am I leading and guiding her in the RIGHT way? What is the right way? Am I preparing her for life, for friendships, for healthy eating habits, for living to be her best self, for good decision making, for sadness and hurt. These are the things that you don't think about when you're pregnant. You think about all the changes going on, and the growth she's making and maybe the birth, or starting a savings plan for her education. In the overall sense, it seems to be that parenthood is a season, like any other season in our lives. There are times of growth, times of endurance, times of stagnation. If we learned it all at once, what good would it be...we learn what we need for the journey along the way, as we are living it.

Just as I was drying my tears, Walker and I noticed the family in front of us. They are dedicating 2 children. The mom is holding a small boy, less than a year old. The dad is talking to the family in front of them, leaving a 2 year old girl to entertain herself. We watched her as she slid one arm out of her dress, then the next arm. She looked around at her parents, and realizing they weren't paying any attention, pushed her dress down to her waist. Then she paused again and looked up at her parents....still engrossed in other things. She pushed her dress to the ground and hopped out of it. By that time the crowd was laughing and wondering what they were laughing at the dad turned to see his daughter in her bloomers! Once the daughter caught the dad's eye she took off running. He grabbed her dress and leapt after her, apologizing along the way. We couldn't stop laughing, it was so funny! As ill-prepared as I feel at this moment to parent a 2 year old, or a 10 year old, or a 16 year old, that's not where I am right now. I don't need to worry about those things. When those times come, I'll be prepared. But sometimes, there are things as a parents you just can't prepare for....like stripping down to your bloomers and running free through the church!

Make 16 Meals!!

Using a handful of fresh green beans, 15 mini carrots and 1/4 bag of frozen green peas. Steam each vegetable in a bamboo steamer (or other steamer), just until tender...don't steam all the nutrients out. Use your handy food processor or blender to puree the vegetable until smooth, adding 1/4 c. to 1/2 cup of water to help with consistency. Notice how bright and vibrant the colors of the purees are!

Use a tablespoon to spoon the vegetable puree into an ice cube tray. Once frozen, pop the cubes out and put them into freezer bags or other containers to store until you need them. Take a cube out about 12 hours before you need it to defrost in the refrigerator, or put the cube in a bowl and run it under warm water if you're in a hurry.

I've been using this website Wholesome Baby Food as a general guide to know how to prepare baby food and what kinds of fruits and vegetables are safe to introduce at which ages.

As a side note, I read up on the nitrates in carrots AFTER preparing the carrots. It is not recommended to give carrots to children under 6-8 months due to the very slight possibility of nitrate poisoning. But at least they are frozen and can stay put until we need them.

Walker and I went out to dinner last night and took Rémy with us. We toted along her bowls of rice cereal and one of the green beans I pureed earlier in the day. She ate the entire bowl of rice cereal and half the green beans, while we ate our fajitas. She didn't dislike it, but it will take her some getting used to I'm sure. Unfortunately, we forgot to bring along the camera for her first green beans moment...but we'll definitely snap a shot at dinner tonight.

If you are debating what kind of fruit or vegetable you'd like your child to try first consider this. Almost all infants will instantly love fruits and any yellow or orange vegetable simply because they are sweet. If you feed them some of the green or unsweet vegetables first and then give them the sweet ones later, they may not get so disgusted over the unsweet ones and are more apt to tolerate vegetables. I'm not sure if this has any truth to it, but it makes sense and it's what I've heard other parents say worked for them. I'll let ya know how it works out.

Dollye's Honey Mustard

Here's my recipe for honey mustard. It's sweet with a bite to it. I've only tried it with yellow mustard so far, but plan to experiment with dijon, or coarse grain mustards in the future.

1 Tbsp mustard
1 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp horseradish
1 tsp mayo

This amount is appropriate for 2 people eating chicken apple sausage links and pretzels and cut up veggie strips. You can adjust the heat by adding more horseradish if you like it spicy. Try it, it's healthier alternative to ranch dressing.